Systems for processing prescription data are known in the art. These systems include prescription authorization switches that are used to submit prescription data to insurance companies for approval of charges. The pharmacy will typically submit the prescription data to the insurance company with a submitted price, and the insurance company will then respond with an indication of whether the charge is approved, approved with a different price, or denied, such as where the insurance policy is not active. The pharmacist can then dispense the prescription and assess charges to the customer based on the response from the insurance company.
Although such switch systems process prescription data, no data management functionality is provided. For example, a manufacturer rebate program implemented in conjunction with prior art switch systems did not provide feedback to pharmacists during the period that the rebate marketing program was active. Thus, although pharmacists received an incentive for selling a predetermined volume of product, they were not receiving information that alerted them as to the additional amount of product that had to be sold to reach a bonus or rebate level. As a result, the incentive programs resulted in incentive payments to pharmacists but were not creating an incentive for the pharmacist to sell more of a given product.